


Meiringen, Meiringen, Zurich (Calais)

by orchid314



Series: Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2018 [3]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Epistolary, Gen, Post-Reichenbach, Prompt Fic, Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:32:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15157049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orchid314/pseuds/orchid314
Summary: Messages, sent and unsent, from the Continent.





	Meiringen, Meiringen, Zurich (Calais)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for July Writing Prompts. Prompt 3: When Shall We Three Meet Again? Have three characters-and ONLY  
> three-appear in your work today.

[Telegram sent on 5th May from Meiringen, Switzerland]

MRS JOHN WATSON  
NO 2 AIRLIE GARDENS KENSINGTON

THE MOST DREADFUL THING HAS OCCURRED STOP OUR DEAR FRIEND I AM NOT AT LIBERTY TO STATE HIS NAME SUFFERED WHAT I FEAR IS A FATAL ACCIDENT STOP I AM WORKING WITH AUTHORITIES TO SEE WHAT MAY BE DONE STOP BE ASSURED I AM WELL AT LEAST IN BODY STOP I WILL WRITE WITH MORE SHORTLY STOP PRAY FOR HIM MARY

JHW

 

[Telegram sent on 7th May from Meiringen, Switzerland]

MRS JOHN WATSON  
NO 2 AIRLIE GARDENS KENSINGTON

ALL HOPE APPEARS LOST STOP I HARDLY KNOW WHAT I AM ABOUT STOP I TRAVEL BY TRAIN FOR ZURICH TONIGHT AND FROM THENCE TO LONDON STOP I WILL WRITE DIRECTLY HAVE ARRIVED ZURICH

JHW

 

[Letter posted on 8th May from Zurich, Switzerland]

My dear Mary,

I write in a daze, scarcely comprehending what has happened since Monday. To think that Sunday evening Sherlock Holmes was alive and drawing breath, unconscious of the terrible fate that awaited him within the span of a mere day. (Although I begin to suspect he must have had some inkling of what was to befall him. And yet I myself did not understand. I could not read it in his face.)

I would on no account alarm you, but I wonder if I am not in a state of shock, for since that terrible day I have eaten nothing, felt nothing and, when the hour has come for sleep, I have lain like an insensate creature, powerless to stop the images that pass before my mind's eye.

My worst fear is realized and Holmes is indeed declared dead, even though his body has not been recovered. But there is very little expectation that it shall be. I accompanied him here to this country while he pursued a supremely difficult case, the details of which I shall share when I am once more able to see you. Suffice for now to say that he at last met with the object of his investigations at the site of a local waterfall, where the two are believed to have come to blows and each man fallen to his death.

I pick up my pen to continue this letter, for I would post it before I embark for Paris. What continually torments me is thinking on all the ways in which I failed him. That as his only friend–having worked with him for years, understanding at least a little of his methods and the shape of his mind–I should not have seen through his ruse. For he sent me away at the last moment to the village, that hateful place I hope never to see again in this life, so that I should not be endangered.

Was he wanting me to see through his trick? Was he too proud to ask for my help? Was he disappointed in me when, like a dull ass, I plodded down the hillside to the village on his fictitious errand? 

You see, I cannot seem to expel these questions from my heart and I begin to suspect that they will be my companions for a very long time to come.

Please forgive this letter–I am putting down on paper my fears and doubts as they come to me, as they have come to me, since that dreadful day, in hopes that I can–I know not what–What must his thoughts have been in his final moments?

My dear, I will wire you when I reach Calais– I beg of you–do not make the trip to the Continent as I will be back in London soon enough–

Yours,  
John

 

[Telegram form, no date, cast into the waters off the shore of Calais]

I cannot think how I shall bear it–


End file.
